The present invention is in the area of telephone call processing and switching, and pertains more particularly to intelligent call-routing systems, and equipment and methods for customizing and personalizing Routing Rules and Protocol.
Telephone call processing and switching systems are, at the time of the present patent application, relatively sophisticated, computerized systems, and development and introduction of new systems continues. Much information on the nature of such hardware and software is available in a number of publications accessible to the present inventor and to those with skill in the art in general. For this reason, much minute detail of known systems is not reproduced here, as to do so would obscure the facts of the invention.
One document which provides considerable information on intelligent networks is xe2x80x9cITU-T Recommendation Q.1219, Intelligent Network User""s Guide for Capability Set 1xe2x80x9d, dated April, 1994. This document is incorporated herein by reference.
At the time of filing the present patent application there continues to be remarkable growth in telephone routing systems, with routing done both at or near point-of origin of incoming calls, and at call destinations. For example, systems are known to the present inventor that perform initial call processing before routing an incoming call to a destination switch, and further routing is done at the call destination in computerized telephony equipment, often termed customer premises equipment (CPE). The present invention pertains most particularly to routing at customer premises.
There are, at the time of the present patent application a considerable range of CPE systems available for use from various manufacturers, and, as state-of-the-art routing systems are typically computerized, there is a broad variety of software available for such systems as well. It is the software in general wherein routing rules are set, and the routing rules determine the decision-making paths a system follows in routing calls.
In current art, although there are widely varying systems in the art relative to routing rules, all such systems exhibit a common drawback. Typically such systems, once set up (programmed) to follow certain routing rules and practices, cannot easily vary, and individual users or groups of users, cannot change the rules arbitrarily. To tinker with the routing rules in CPE typically requires a highly-trained maintenance technician (system administrator).
What is clearly needed is method and apparatus which allows an individual user of a routing system, or a group of users, to alter and customize the routing rules of the system for particular purposes, which may change from time to time, depending on the users.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention a telephony call-in center is provided, comprising a plurality of agent stations, individual ones of the agent stations having a telephone and a computer platform including a video display unit (VDU), the telephone and computer platform connected by a Telephone Application Programming Interface (TAPI)-compliant data link; a local area network (LAN) connecting at least some of the computer platforms at the agent stations; and a first computer processor connected on the LAN, having a wide area network connection (WAN) adapted to receive computer-simulated telephone calls, and having access to a database. The computer platform is adapted to retrieve origination data for incoming calls to the telephone, and to use the origination data to correlate the caller with further data retrieved from the database for display on the VDU. In some embodiments the the first computer processor is adapted to service calls from specific Service Control Points (SCPs) and to block display of data at agent station VDUs for any call not identified as originating at one of the specific SCPs.
In preferred embodiments the computer platforms are adapted to report the origination data to the first processor, and the first processor is adapted to correlate the caller with further data retrieved from the database for display on the VDU.
In an alternative embodiment a telephone call-routing system is provided, comprising a call-in center comprising a plurality of agent stations, individual ones of the agent stations having a telephone and a computer platform including a video display unit (VDU), the telephone and the computer platform connected by a Telephone Application Programming Interface (TAPI)-compliant bridge, with a plurality of the computer workstations connected to one another, to a first processor, and to a database on a local area network (LAN); and a call-routing center comprising a telephony switch adapted to switch telephone calls to the telephones at the call-in center and a processor adapted to route computer-simulated telephone calls to the computer platforms at the agent stations. In this embodiment the computer workstation is adapted to retrieve origination data for incoming calls, both conventional telephony and computer-simulated, and to report the origination data to the first processor, and wherein the first processor is adapted to use the origination data to correlate the caller with further data retrieved from the database for display on the VDU. IN some instances the first processor is adapted to service calls from specific Service Control Points (SCPs) and to block display of data at agent station VDUs for any call not identified as originating at one of the specific SCPs.
In yet another embodiment an agent station for a call-in center is provided, comprising a computer platform having a local area network (LAN) adapter, the computer platform adapted for receiving and processing computer-simulated telephone calls; a telephone having a telephone line port; and a Telephone Application Programming Interface (TAPI)-compliant bridge connecting the computer workstation and the telephone. The computer workstation is adapted to retrieve origination data for calls, both calls to the telephone and computer-simulated calls to the computer platform, and to report the origination data on a LAN via the LAN adapter to a processor connected to the LAN.
In still another embodiment a method for correlating displayed data with incoming conventional telephone and computer-simulated telephone calls at a call-in center is provided, comprising steps of (a) connecting individual telephones at the call-in center by a Telephone Application Programming Interace (TAPI)-compliant bridge to individual computer platforms; (b) connecting each telephone-connected computer workstation on a local area network (LAN) to a processor connected on the LAN, the processor having access to a database storing data to be displayed; (c) monitoring origination information of incoming calls by the computer workstations; (d) providing the origination information over the LAN to the LAN-connected processor; and (e) using the origination information via the processor to correlate data to be displayed with the incoming calls.
In the various embodiments of the invention described in enabling detail below, call centers without call-switching apparatus and capable of also processing computer-simulated calls are enabled, while also providing means of correlating stored data pertaining to callers with calls to agent stations, displaying the data on VDUs at the agent stations while calls are in progress.